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Numbers of citations of outstanding conference papers (OCPs) of IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conferences (NSRECs) from 1966 to 2017 are compared with citations of the most highly cited papers (HCPs) of the corresponding special issues of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE (TNS), as well as average numbers of citations and cumulative $h$ index, $h_{\mathrm {cum}}$ , for all TNS papers published in the same year. 85% of NSREC OCPs are cited at a higher rate than the average for all TNS articles in that year. 55% of NSREC OCP citation totals are higher than $h_{\mathrm {cum}}$ for TNS in that year; these rank among the ~8% most highly cited TNS papers for that year. In ~10% of cases, the NSREC OCP is also the most HCP. Similarly high citation impact is found for papers nominated as candidates for OCPs. Radiation effects papers published in annual NSREC special issues comprise a significant fraction of all TNS articles cited $h_{\mathrm {cum}}$ times or more. These results support the use of $h_{\mathrm {cum}}$ as a metric of citation impact in this work and show that the NSREC OCP process generally meets awards criteria guidelines for impact. Potential reasons for variations in citation rates are discussed, and recommendations are provided to enhance the awards process.

The work presented in this paper forms part of a literature review conducted during a study on error detection and correction systems. The research formed the foundation of understanding, touching on space radiation, glitches and upsets, geomagnetism, error detection and correction (EDAC) schemes, and implementing EDAC systems. EDAC systems have been around for quite some time, and certain EDAC schemes have been implemented and tested extensively. However, this work is a more focused study on understanding and finding the best-suited EDAC solution for nanosatellites in low earth orbits (LEO).

This conference presents the recipients of the Outstanding Conference Paper Award from the 2015 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference.

This paper identifies a selection of papers presented at the NSREC and published in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE that have had measurable impact on radiation effects research and the radiation effects community. Criteria include papers selected for the Outstanding Paper Award at the NSREC or papers from the NSREC that have been highly cited by authors of other journal publications. Additionally, several papers are identified that, even though they are not selected by the above criteria, have impacted the technical areas served by the NSREC. Some observations are made on the methodology used here for selecting high-impact papers.

Heavy ion radiation, prevalent in outer space and relevant for radiotherapy, is densely ionizing and poses risk to stem cells that are key to intestinal homeostasis. Currently, the molecular spectrum of heavy ion radiation-induced perturbations in intestinal stem cells (ISCs), that could trigger intestinal pathologies, remains largely unexplored. The Lgr5-EGFP-IRES-creERT mice were exposed to 50 cGy of iron radiation. Mice were euthanized 60 d after exposure and ISCs were sorted using fluorescence activated cell sorting. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial superoxide were measured using fluorescent probes. Since DNA damage is linked to senescence and senescent cells acquire senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), we stained ISCs for both senescence markers p16, p21, and p19 as well as SASP markers IL6, IL8, and VEGF. Due to potential positive effects of SASP on proliferation, we also stained for PCNA. Data show increased ROS and ongoing DNA damage, by staining for γH2AX, and 53BP1, along with accumulation of senescence markers. Results also showed increased SASP markers in senescent cells. Collectively, our data suggest that heavy-ion-induced chronic stress and ongoing DNA damage is promoting SASP in a fraction of the ISCs, which has implications for gastrointestinal function, inflammation, and carcinogenesis in astronauts and patients.

© 2015 The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Abstract Cancer is an important long-term risk for astronauts exposed to protons and high-energy charged particles during travel and residence on asteroids, the moon, and other planets. NASA's Biomedical Critical Path Roadmap defines the carcinogenic risks of radiation exposure as one of four type I risks. A type I risk represents a demonstrated, serious problem with no countermeasure concepts, and may be a potential "show-stopper" for long duration spaceflight. Estimating the carcinogenic risks for humans who will be exposed to heavy ions during deep space exploration has very large uncertainties at present. There are no human data that address risk from extended exposure to complex radiation fields. The overarching goal in this area to improve risk modeling is to provide biological insight and mechanistic analysis of radiation quality effects on carcinogenesis. Understanding mechanisms will provide routes to modeling and predicting risk and designing countermeasures. This white paper reviews broad issues related to experimental models and concepts in space radiation carcinogenesis as well as the current state of the field to place into context recent findings and concepts derived from the NASA Space Radiation Program.

Exposure to the space radiation environment poses risks for a range of deleterious health effects due to the unique types of radiation encountered. Galactic cosmic rays are comprised of a spectrum of highly energetic nuclei that deposit densely ionizing tracks of damage along the particle trajectory. These tracks are distinct from those generated by the more sparsely ionizing terrestrial radiations, and define the geometric distribution of the complex cellular damage that results when charged particles traverse the tissues of the body. The exquisite radiosensitivity of multipotent neural stem and progenitor cells found within the neurogenic regions of the brain predispose the central nervous system to elevated risks for radiation induced sequelae. Here we show that human neural stem cells (hNSC) exposed to different charged particles at space relevant fluences exhibit significant and persistent oxidative stress. Radiation induced oxidative stress was found to be most dependent on total dose rather than on the linear energy transfer of the incident particle. The use of redox sensitive fluorogenic dyes possessing relative specificity for hydroxyl radicals, peroxynitrite, nitric oxide (NO) and mitochondrial superoxide confirmed that most irradiation paradigms elevated reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS, respectively) in hNSC over a 1 week interval following exposure. Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was not the major source of elevated nitric oxides, as the use of NOS inhibitors had little effect on NO dependent fluorescence. Our data provide extensive evidence for the capability of low doses of charged particles to elicit marked changes in the metabolic profile of irradiated hNSC. Radiation induced changes in redox state may render the brain more susceptible to the development of neurocognitive deficits that could affect an astronaut’s ability to perform complex tasks during extended missions in deep space., Graphical abstract

During deep space missions, astronauts are exposed to highly ionizing radiation, incl. neutrons, protons and heavy ions from galactic cosmic rays (GCR), solar wind (SW) and solar energetic particles (SEP). This increase the risks for cancerogenisis, damages in central nervous system (CNS), cardiovascular diseases, etc. Large SEP events can even cause acute radiation syndrome (ARS). Long term manned deep space missions will therefor require unique radiation protection strategies. Since it has been shown that physical shielding alone is not sufficient, this paper propose pre-flight screening of the aspirants for evaluation of their level of adaptive responses. Methods for boosting their immune system, should also be further investigated, and the possibility of using radiation effect modulators are discussed. In this paper, especially, the use of vitamin C as a promising non-toxic, cost-effective, easily available radiation mitigator (which can be used hours after irradiation), is described. Although it has previously been shown that vitamin C can decrease radiation-induced chromosomal damage in rodents, it must be further investigated before any conclusions about its radiation mitigating properties in humans can be concluded.

Modern transceivers are widely used in the design of the on-board equipment of spacecraft. The effects of space ionizing radiation can lead to failures in operation of transceivers, leading to a loss of the transmitted data. It is necessary to provide radiation hardness assurance of transceivers in order to evaluate the rate of upsets in the operation of transceivers used the on-board equipment of spacecraft. The paper describes main types of failures observed in interface ICs operating in space radiation environment. The classification of functional failures in transceivers exposed to ionizing radiation and monitoring methods are presented in this paper. Parameters of transceivers that has to be monitored during radiation testing are listed. We reviewed National Instruments equipment used in radiation testing of different types of transceivers. A measuring system based on this equipment was used for radiation testing of TLK2711 transceiver in loop operation mode over a serial data channel.

It is a long-standing tradition of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) to recognize the Outstanding Conference Paper, the Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation, and the best paper presented and first-authored by an IEEE Student Member. In addition to recognizing authors for particularly high quality and relevant work, the awards process also encourages all authors to produce presentations and manuscripts of high technical quality, clarity of presentation, and significance to the community.

By reading the commentary of Bevelacqua and Mortazavi regarding our recently published paper titled as "The effect of simulated space radiation on the N-glycosylation of human immunoglobulin G1"[1], we are afraid that some of the important messaging aspects of our paper might not have been articulated adequately to be fully understandable for a wider audience, i.e., not separation scientists. First, we should clarify that complete space radiation description was not the goal of this paper. In this short communication we only intended to show the effect of simulated space radiation on the conserved N-glycosylation of IgG1 molecules with the goal to understand if they could be utilized as disease biomarkers during longer space missions, similar to that as they are currently used here on Earth, e.g. for autoimmune disease or aging markers. Therefore, no discussion was given about any biological effects either as our study only investigated the qualitative effects of proton irradiation on the N-linked carbohydrate decomposition of IgG type 1 molecules with the intent of suggesting them to be used as biomarkers during deep space travel. Radioadaptation was never an issue in our study for the reasons mentioned above.

The May 2021 Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS) contains selected papers from the 57th annual IEEE International Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC), which was held virtually from November 29 through December 30, 2020. The 2020 IEEE NSREC was sponsored by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. More than 60 of the papers presented during NSREC are included in this year’s Special Issue. This issue is neither a conference proceedings nor a conference record. The papers that appear in this Special Issue successfully completed the regular journal review process before the special issue deadline. Several more papers presented during the conference are likely to appear in subsequent issues of the TNS.

It is a long-standing tradition of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) to recognize the Outstanding Conference Paper, the Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation, and the best paper presented and first-authored by an IEEE Student Member. In addition to recognizing authors for particularly high-quality and relevant work, the awards process also encourages all authors to produce presentations and manuscripts of high technical quality, clarity of presentation, and significance to the community.

The recipients of the 2014 NSREC Outstanding Conference Paper Award are Nathaniel A. Dodds, James R. Schwank, Marty R. Shaneyfelt, Paul E. Dodd, Barney L. Doyle, Michael Trinczek, Ewart W. Blackmore, Kenneth P. Rodbell, Michael S. Gordon, Robert A. Reed, Jonathan A. Pellish, Kenneth A. LaBel, Paul W. Marshall, Scot E. Swanson, Gyorgy Vizkelethy, Stuart Van Deusen, Frederick W. Sexton, and M. John Martinez, for their paper entitled "Hardness Assurance for Proton Direct Ionization-Induced SEEs Using a High-Energy Proton Beam." For older CMOS technologies, protons could only cause single-event effects (SEEs) through nuclear interactions. Numerous recent studies on 90 nm and newer CMOS technologies have shown that protons can also cause SEEs through direct ionization. Furthermore, this paper develops and demonstrates an accurate and practical method for predicting the error rate caused by proton direct ionization (PDI).

ZERODUR has been and is still being successfully used as mirror substrates for a large number of space missions. Improvements in CNC machining at SCHOTT allow to achieve extremely light weighted substrates incorporating very thin ribs and face sheets. This paper is reviewing data published on the interaction of space radiation with ZERODUR. Additionally, this paper reports on considerations and experiments which are needed to confidently apply an updated model on ZERODUR behavior under space radiation for extremely light weighted ZERODUR substrates.

Gary M. Swift has spent the last twenty-five plus years going to accelerators and testing electrical components for their suitability for use in space radiation environments. Gary received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Oklahoma in 1975 and did graduate work in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After almost two decades at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, he “retired” as a principal engineer in 2007, and moved to Xilinx, Inc. to help develop and test their space-worthy FPGAs. Currently, Gary is the Principal Engineer at the independent consulting firm Swift Engineering and Radiation Services, LLC which he founded, specializing in best-practice SEE testing of complex ICs such as FPGAs and microprocessors. He has publications on a broad range of radiation effects testing including total dose and displacement damage and many single-event effects; for example, in 1992, he coined the now widely used term SEFI. He is co-author on two paper papers that received the NSREC Outstanding Paper Award (in 1999 and 2015). Back in 2001, Gary, then at JPL, and Carl Carmichael of Xilinx started the Xilinx Radiation Test Consortium, a voluntary group of national labs, universities and aerospace companies that collaborate on SEE testing, and he has served as the XRTC main test coordinator and weekly telecom moderator to the present day.

This paper describes an experimental approach to evaluate the effective doses of space radiations at high-altitude by combining the measured data from the Liulin-6K spectrometer loaded onto the air-borne RC-800 cockpit and the calculated data from CARI-6M code developed by FAA. In this paper, 15 exposed dose experiments for the flight missions at a highaltitude above 10 km and 3 experiments at a normal altitude below 4 km were executed over the Korean Peninsula in 2012. The results from the high-altitude flight measurements show a dramatic change in the exposed doses as the altitude increases. The effective dose levels (an average of 15.27 μSv) of aircrew at the high-altitude are an order of magnitude larger than those (an average of 0.30 μSv) of the normal altitude flight. The comparison was made between the measure dose levels and the calculated dose levels and those were similar each other. It indicates that the annual dose levels of the aircrew boarding RC- 800 could be above 1 mSv. These results suggest that a proper procedure to manage the exposed dose of aircrew is required for ROK Air Force.

It is a longstanding tradition of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) to honor the Outstanding Conference Paper and the Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation. In recent years, recognition has also been given to the best paper first-authored and presented by an IEEE Student Member. The awards process not only rewards authors for particularly high quality and important work, but also encourages all authors to produce presentations and manuscripts of high technical quality, clarity of presentation, and significance to the community.

The January 2019 special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS) contains selected papers from the 55th annual IEEE International Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) held on July 16–20, 2018, in Kona, Hawaii. The 2018 IEEE NSREC was sponsored by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. Eighty-three of the 102 papers presented at the 2018 IEEE NSREC were submitted for consideration for this year’s special issue. This issue is neither a conference proceeding nor a conference record. The papers that appear in this special issue successfully completed the regular journal review process before the special issue deadline. Several more papers presented at the Conference are likely to appear in subsequent issues of the Transactions.

This is the 50 year anniversary of the annual IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effect Conference (NSREC). The first official IEEE NSREC was held at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA in 1964. Although the NSREC started primarily as a forum for the reporting of U.S. research on nuclear weapons effects in electronics it has grown to be primarily an international conference on the effect of space radiation on microelectronics. In this paper the history of NSREC will be discussed in terms of changes in technical content, change in mix of papers between industry, government labs and universities, change in venue, growth in number of authors per paper and the addition of new features in the conference.

The first part of the paper presents recent developments in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM) with special attention on the piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) technologies utilizing guided waves (GW) as propagating waves (pitch-catch, pulse-echo), standing wave (electromechanical impedance), and phased arrays. The second part of the paper describes the challenges of extending the PWAS GW SHM approach to in-space applications. Three major issues are identified, (a) cryogenic temperatures; (b) high temperatures; and (c) space radiation exposure. Preliminary results in which these three issues were address in a series of carefully conducted experiments are presented and discussed. The third part of the paper discusses a new project that is about to start in collaboration between three Romanian institutes to address the issues and challenging of developing space SHM technologies based on PWAS concepts. The paper finishes with conclusions and suggestions for further work.

Spacecraft electronics are affected by the space radiation environment. Among the different types of radiation effects that can affect spacecraft electronics is the single event transients. The space environment is responsible for many of the single event transients which can upset the performance of the spacecraft avionics hardware. In this paper we first explore the origins of single event transients, then explore the modeling of a single event transient in digital and analog circuit. The paper also addresses the concept of crosstalk that could develop among digital circuits in the present of a SET event. The paper ends with a brief discussion of SET hardening. The goal of the paper is to provide methodologies for assessing single event transients and their effects so that spacecraft avionics engineers can develop either hardware or software countermeasures in their designs.

In the longstanding tradition of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC), for NSREC 2016, we are pleased to recognize the Outstanding Conference Paper, an Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation, and the best paper presented and first authored by an IEEE Student Member. In addition to recognizing authors for particularly high quality and relevant work, the awards process also encourages all authors to produce presentations and manuscripts of outstanding technical quality, clarity of presentation, and significance to the community.

The January 2018 special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (TNS) contains selected papers from the 54th annual IEEE International Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) held on July 17–21, 2017 in New Orleans, LA, USA. The 2017 IEEE NSREC was sponsored by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. Eighty four of the ninety three papers presented in New Orleans were submitted for consideration for this year’s special issue. The papers that appear in this special issue successfully completed the review process before the deadline. Several more papers presented in New Orleans are likely to appear in subsequent issues of the Transactions.

Photonic imagers are being increasingly used in space systems, where they are exposed to the space radiation environment. Unique properties of these devices require special considerations for radiation effects. This paper summarizes the evolution of radiation effects understanding in infrared detector technology, charge coupled devices, and active pixel sensors. The paper provides a discussion of key radiation effects developments and a view of the future of the technologies from a radiation effects perspective.

This paper addresses some of the pertinent questions relating to the assessment of radiation risk for humans in space; the paper is not intended as a comprehensive review. The radiation field is briefly summarised and doses to be expected are given based on recent on-board measurements. The problems in adapting terrestrial epidemiological data to the space situation are outlined. Apart from the intrinsic uncertainties in deriving risk factors the specific difficulties are mainly concerned with the effects of energetic charged particles for which no human data exist. The necessity for continuing ground-based research is stressed. Also discussed is whether the principles of radiation protection successfully applied on Earth are really suitable for the space situation or whether they should be replaced by a different approach.

Space radiation has a catastrophic impact on solar cells performance, appears as a degradation in their electrical and physical properties, this may cause a satellite failure; to overcome this issue, ground testing is required. In this paper, the pulsed laser was used as an alternative irradiation tool to induce degradation in solar cell performance in order to simulate the space radiation effect on solar cells. Firstly, the solar cells were irradiated with a wavelength of 532 nm at different locations, with the same power to optimize the most effective area to irradiation. Secondly, the solar cells were irradiated to the optimized location with different laser fluences; the results showed a degradation in electrical and physical performance. The amount of degradation is proportional to the laser fluence. Dark current voltage (DIV) curves have been measured before and after laser irradiation. Solar cell degradation rates have been calculated based on the Degradation coefficients (KL, RC) and electrical damage models.

Exposure to space radiation may have impacts on brain function, either during or following missions. It is most important to determine how low doses of protons and high-LET irradiation elicit changes in brain function. Within this framework, the role of oxidative stress should also be assessed, as well as other possible interaction mechanisms involving, e.g., genetic, environmental, and sex-dependent risk factors. The hippocampus is particularly susceptible to radiation. It plays an essential role in memory formation and consolidation and is one of the most investigated brain components for its responses to radiation. The hippocampus is also one of the first brain structures to be damaged in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, an important potential late impairment following irradiation. In ‘Section 3: CNS risk’, six papers have been presented focused on these issues. For details the reader is directed to the specific papers. Here a very short summary follows.

Concerns about the biological effects of space radiation are increasing rapidly due to the perspective of long-duration manned missions, both in relation to the International Space Station (ISS) and to manned interplanetary missions to the Moon and Mars in the future. As a preparation for these long duration space missions it is important to ensure an excellent capability to evaluate the impact of space radiation on human health in order to secure the safety of the astronauts/cosmonauts and minimize their risks. It is therefore necessary to measure the radiation load on the personnel both inside and outside the space vehicles and certify that organ and tissue equivalent doses can be simulated as accurate as possible. In this paper we will present preliminary results from simulations, using the three-dimensional Monte Carlo Particle and Heavy Ions Transport code System (PHITS), of long term dose distribution measurements performed with the joint ESA-FSA experiment MATROSHKA-R (MTR-R) led by the Russian Federation Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP). MTR-R is a spherical phantom located inside the crew cabin of ISS. We also show some results from PHITS simulations of the ESA supported experiment MATROSHKA (MTR), which consists of an anthropomorphic phantom containing over 6000 radiation detectors, mimicking a human head and torso. The MTR experiment, led by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), was launched in January 2004 and has measured the absorbed dose from space radiation both inside and outside the ISS. In this paper preliminary comparisons of measurements outside the ISS will be presented. For the purpose of examining the applicability of PHITS to the shielding design, the absorbed doses and dose equivalents in a cylindrical phantom with tissue equivalent material inside an imaginary space vessel on a geostationary orbit at solar minimum has also been estimated for different shielding materials of different thicknesses. All the results indicate that PHITS is a suitable tool when estimating radiation risks for humans on manned space missions and when performing shielding design studies of spacecraft.

Space missions with humans expose the crews to ionizing radiation, mainly due to the galactic cosmic radiation (GCR). All radiation protection programs in space aim to minimize crews’ exposure to radiation. The radiation protection of astronauts can be achieved through the use of shields. The shields could serve as a suit to reduce GCR exposure and, in an emergency, as a radiation shelter to perform necessary interventions outside the space habitat in case of a solar proton event (SPE). A space radiation shielding that is suitable for exploration during space missions requires particular features and a proper knowledge of the radiation type. This study shows the results of numerical simulations performed with the Geant4 toolkit-based code DOSE. Calculations to evaluate the performance of Nomex, an aramidic fiber with high mechanical resistance, in terms of dose reduction to crews, were performed considering the interaction between protons with an energy spectrum ranging from 50 to 1100 MeV and a target slab of 20 g/cm2. This paper shows the properties of secondary products obtained as a result of the interaction between space radiation and a Nomex target and the properties of the secondary particles that come out the shield. The results of this study show that Nomex can be considered a good shield candidate material in terms of dose reductions. We also note that the secondary particles that provide the greatest contribution to the dose are protons, neutrons and, in a very small percentage, α-particles and Li ions.

There has been increasing necessity of more precise prediction and measurements of aviation radiation in Korea. For our air crew and passengers’ radiation safety, we develop our own radiation prediction model of KREAM. In this paper, we validate the KREAM model based on comparison with Liulin observations. During early three months of this year, we perform total 25 experiments to measure aviation radiation exposure using Liulin-6K in commercial flights. We found that KREAM’s result is very well consistent with Liulin observation in general. NAIRAS shows mostly higher results than Liulin observation, while CARI-6M shows generally lower results than the observations. The percent error of KREAM compared with Liulin observation is 10.95%. In contrast, the error for NAIRAS is 43.38% and 22.03% for CARI-6M. We found that the increase of the altitude might cause sudden increase in radiation exposure, especially for the polar route. As more comprehensive and complete analysis is required to validate KREAM’s reliability to use for the public service, we plan to expand these radiation measurements with Liulin and Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) in the near future.

From time to time over the past several decades, designs utilizing active methods involving electromagnetic field configurations have been proposed for the purpose of protecting spacecraft crews from harmful space radiations. Designs affording protection from either solar energetic particle event protons or galactic cosmic rays or both have been proposed. Often these analyses are predicated upon simplified or even incorrect assumptions regarding the incident radiation spectra or their associated radiation risks and limits. At times the proponents of these designs make very optimistic assumptions about the abilities of the scientific and engineering communities to overcome existing technology gaps needed to move their designs from paper to practice. In this paper, various active shield methods proposed over the past several decades are reviewed and critiqued. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed methods are presented. Shortcomings in the analyses of their shielding efficacies, where they exist, are described.

Announces the winners of the 2012 NSREC Outstanding Conference Paper Award, the 2012 Outstanding Student Paper Award, and the 2012 Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation Award.

The paper summarized issues, current status and the recent topics in biological research of space radiation. Researches to estimate a risk associated with space radiation exposure during a long-term manned space flight, such as in the International Space Station, is emphasized because of the large uncertainty of biological effects and a complexity of the radiation environment in space. The Issues addressed are; 1) biological effects and end points in low dose radiation, 2) biological effects under low dose rate and long-term radiation exposure, 3) modification of biological responses to radiation under space environments, 4) various aspects of biological end points vs. cellular and molecular mechanisms, 5) estimation of human risk associated with radiation exposure in space flight, 6) regulations for radiation exposure limits for space workers. The paper also summarized and introduced recent progress in space related radiation researches with various biological systems.

Ina recent paper, Lockwood et al. (1991) have used IMP spacecraft and Neutron Monitor data to consider the rigidity dependence of three large Forbush Decreases over the energy range 50 MeV to 30 GeV. Some of their conclusions are extrapolated to higher energies. In an earlier paper (Duldig, 1987a), one of us discussed the need to consider the presence of isotropic intensity waves when determining the Forbush Decrease spectrum at energies up to a few hundred GeV. Lockwood et al.’s conclusions are discussed in the light of these results.

The normal working and living areas of the astronaut are designed to provide an acceptable level of protection against the hazards of ionizing space radiation. Attempts to reduce the exposures require intervening shield materials to reduce the transmitted radiation. An unwelcome side effect of the shielding is the production of neutrons, which are themselves dangerous particles that can be (but are not always) more hazardous than the particles that produced them. This is especially true depending on the choice of shield materials. Although neutrons are not a normal part of the space environment, this paper focuses on them as principle component of astronaut exposure in the massive spacecraft's required for human space travel and habitation near planetary surfaces or other large bodies of material in space.

It is a longstanding tradition of the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) to honor the Outstanding Conference Paper and the Outstanding Data Workshop Presentation. In recent years recognition has also been given to the best paper presented and first-authored by an IEEE Student Member. The awards process not only rewards authors for particularly high quality and important work, but also encourages all authors to produce presentations and manuscripts of high technical quality, clarity of presentation, and significance to the community.

A program of comparing American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation transport codes has recently begun, and the first paper directly comparing the NASA and ROSCOSMOS space radiation transport codes, HZETRN and SHIELD respectively has recently appeared. The present work represents the second time that NASA and ROSCOSMOS calculations have been directly compared, and the focus here is on models of pion production cross sections used in the two transport codes mentioned above. It was found that these models are in overall moderate agreement with each other and with experimental data. Disagreements that were found are discussed.

This article first introduces the implementation of FPGA dynamic partial reconfiguration, combined with the space radiation environment’s demand for FPGA configuration refresh, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of different refresh control systems. According to the understanding of the FPGA bitstream structure, this paper proposes a Self-Refresh bitstream design scheme based on FPGA dynamic partial reconfiguration and designs the corresponding bitstream. The simulation results show that the bitstream design scheme is easy to implement in FPGA and significantly reduces the refresh time.

The December 2008 special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science contains selected papers from the 45th annual IEEE International Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) held in Tucson, Arizona, July 14 - 18, 2008. Over 115 papers presented at the 2008 NSREC were submitted for consideration for this year's special issue. Those papers that appear in this special issue were able to successfully complete the review process before the deadline for the December issue. A few additional papers may appear in subsequent issues of the TRANSACTIONS. This publication is the premier archival journal for research on space and nuclear radiation effects in materials, devices, circuits, and systems. This distinction is the direct result of the conscientious efforts of both the authors, who present and document their work, and the reviewers, who selflessly volunteer their time and talent to help review the manuscripts. Each paper in this journal has been reviewed by experts selected by the editors for their expertise and knowledge of the particular subject areas.

LifeSat is a reusable reentry satellite for use by NASA and the international space life sciences community. It will be employed beginning in late 1994, to understand the effects of the space environment (i.e., high energy space radiation and microgravity) on biological systems. This paper describes the program for LifeSat.

This letter addresses our concerns regarding the paper ‘DNA Damage in Blood Leukocytes from Mice Irradiated with Accelerated Carbon Ions with an Energy of 450 MeV/nucleon’ that was recently publish...

This paper investigates flight circuit application bias and irradiation dose rate dependencies ("test as you fly" conditions) in the total ionizing dose (TID) response of various electronic components considered for use in a space radiation environment.

AeroCube-10 is a two-CubeSat mission built and operated by The Aerospace Corporation. Among several payloads is a space solar cell experiment designed to measure solar cell radiation damage as well as the space radiation environment believed to cause it. This paper describes first on-orbit results of the space solar cell experiment on AeroCube-10.

In the study of internal charging of dielectrics inside the spacecraft, we mainly focus on the influence of conductivity of dielectrics induced by space radiation(Radiation Induced Conductivity), and regard the relative permittivity as constant. However, during the ground testing of dielectrics, we found that the relative permittivity of dielectrics decreased after being exposed to electron beams, thus affecting the electric field and the release of charge inside dielectrics. The relative permittivity can gradually returned to the initial state when the radiation stops. In the paper, we present the experiment result and try to give explanations on the mechanism behind this phenomenon.

For a number of years, papers have been submitted to the Transactions on Nuclear Science in one of two ways - either as an independently contributed paper or as a manuscript accompanying a presentation at one of the conferences sponsored by NPSS. The review process for contributed papers has been handled by the Editor of the Transactions. For papers associated with the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, a trio of Guest Editors have been responsible for the reviews. For papers presented at the Conference on Real-Time Computer Applications in Nuclear, Particle, and Plasma Physics and at the Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Fred Kirsten as Conference Editor has marshalled the reviews since 1990.

This paper is the third in a series of comparisons of American (NASA) and Russian (ROSCOSMOS) space radiation calculations. The present work focuses on calculation of fluxes of galactic cosmic rays (GCR), which are a constant source of radiation that constitutes one of the major hazards during deep space exploration missions for both astronauts/cosmonauts and hardware. In this work, commonly used GCR models are compared with recently published measurements of cosmic ray Hydrogen, Helium, and the Boron-to-Carbon ratio from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). All of the models were developed and calibrated prior to the publication of the AMS data; therefore this an opportunity to validate the models against an independent data set.

There are a large number of protons with different energies from the dozens of keV to hundreds of MeV in space environment, which simultaneously act on the bipolar junction transistors (BJTs), and induce different irradiation effect and damage defects. Moreover, interaction between displacement defects and ionization defects occurs. In the paper, the interaction mechanisms between oxide charge and displacement defects in 3DG112 NPN BJTs caused by the combined 70 keV and 170 keV protons with 5 MeV proton irradiation are studied. Experimental results show the degradation of current gain increases linearly with increasing the irradiation fluence of the 170 keV and 5 MeV protons, but increases nonlinearly for the 70 keV protons, implying that the 170 keV and 5 MeV protons mainly induce displacement damage on the NPN BJTs, while the 70 keV protons cause ionization damage. It can be seen from the Geant4 calculation that 70 keV and 170 keV protons cause almost the same ionization damage on the 3DG112 transistors, while have significant difference in displacement damage ability, which is favorable to analyze the effect of displacement damage in oxide layer of NPN BJTs induced by 170 keV and 70 keV protons on ionization damage caused by the subsequent 5 MeV protons. DLTS analyses show that 5 MeV protons produce mainly displacement defect centers in based-collector junction of 3DG112 transistors, and 170 keV and 70 keV protons only induce almost the same number of the oxide trapped charges. While the combined irradiation can produce the more oxide trapped charges, except displacement defects, showing that displacement damage in oxide layer caused by 170 keV and 70 keV protons can increase the oxide trapped charges during the subsequent 5 MeV exposures. Moreover, the more displacement defects in oxide layer will induce more oxide trapped charges, and give more enhanced synergistic effects. These results will help to assess the reliability of BJTs in the space radiation environment.

This paper describes version 1.5 of the AE9/AP9 family of space radiation climatology models. The most significant update is the inclusion of new data sets that change the flux maps. These new data include measurements from Van Allen Probes, Azur, and the HiLET sensor on the TWINS-2 spacecraft. In recognition of international contributions to the models, we introduce the IRENE nomenclature for International Radiation Environment Near Earth.